Older Stuff

journaling

This year I am striving to have the most creative year I’ve ever had. I know, lots of people say that, but I am going on record to say that I’m determined to make more art, teach more classes, and work harder than I have ever worked before to make creativity a top priority in my life. It sustains my soul. I get grumpy if I don’t get to work on art projects for several days in a row.

Bright and early this morning I finished a journal that I started at Thanksgiving during a Gratitude Journal class that I co-taught with my closest friend, Jessica Hartwell.

The journal was created by spray painting large water color sheets with stencils. Then the sheet were cut down into size and bound together. Jessica and I swapped a few pages, so my journal has a mix of colors.

All of the stars on the pages inspired me to do a motivational journal rather than a gratitude journal and once the cover was complete, I added the title “Magical Me.” (Yes, totally a Harry Potter reference in case you’re wondering).

I am so overdue posting, had to start with that obligatory comment. Sadly I was way overdue working in my journal. I got to the point where I could not stand it anymore. I feel much better now. I have been creating, but mostly working on jewelry. Trying to get things up on Etsy. Trying to get some classes together. Emphasis on “trying.”
Work has taken a front seat lately, which had its good points. I honestly love my job and am very grateful for that. I get to be creative while making a living. I get to teach. I am one of the few who gets paid for her passion. But often passion must be suppressed in the professional world. Lately my passion has been getting me into sticky situations. I need to learn to be more humble. It’s tough.
So this page is about my struggle because I feel like I am incapable of putting on a “poker face” to hide what is really going on with me. Despite all of the work I have done, when I am hungry, angry, lonely, and/or tired, all decorum and emotional control feels and often is impossible. I just don’t have a poker face. What you see is what you get with me.

So I’m taking another wonderful class from artist Kelly Kilmer called “Swatches: Little Paper Books.” The idea is to work small, to use bits of things, to work with recycled materials and explore doing things differently than you have done before. I’m loving the class and the challenge faced with working small. I’ve worked small in the past – created scads of Artist Trading Cards, but with my journals, I’ve always worked pretty large. My typical journals are 8 1/2 x 11 pages. So working in this little 5 x 5 inch book is quite different for me. You will see I’ve come up with a few creative solutions so far. As always, I’m learning alot. I cannot say enough great things about Kelly’s classes.

In making my book, I decided to use a recycled street newspaper that is published here in Portland – The Mercury. I picked it up one day because I liked the cover image and I have been saving it for a while. I realized that I could cut the paper apart retaining only the top left corner and this would give me the headlines for all the pages with which to play with. I bound the pages together by hand using Kelly’s instructions. Here’s the resulting book.

I haven’t decided how I’m going to alter the cover yet; I think I’m saving that for last. Other things I decided to do is have curious tabs here and there and also try and have a paint swatch used on every page in some way. The following are the pages I’ve completed within the last seven days – the first week of class.

Now some of the pages have special details worth mentioning. The first is that the page for day 2 includes a transparency cover that may be lifted up so you can more clearly read the journaling beneath.

And day 4 is a set of doors which opens to reveal the rest of the page.

All the pages are individuals with the exception of day 1 – took a whole spread. I’ve tried to keep the adjacent pages color themed similar so that visually the spreads look good except that they are for completely separate prompts. Here are the spreads for the first seven days.

So far, the only combination/page I’m not completely happy with is day 7. I am not too fond with the green along the bottom. I’m thinking of a way to fix that.

I realized last night when I was creating this page that the theme was emerging from an inner desire to be able to just stop. A lot has been going on in my life, all good things, but these things have been eating into the time I spend with my journal. I realized last night that my journal creates a place of pause for me, a haven where I can stop, look, and listen to my heart and soul.

Fall has always been a favorite season of mine since I was a child, but the longer I live in the Pacific Northwest, the more I love Spring! I love the bright vivid chartreuse green leaves emerging from the skeletal trees dominating the landscape all Winter. I love the bursts of color from the early spring bulbs – crocus, daffodils, and soon tulips. I adore the abundance of cherry blossoms, especially the trees that have double blossoms and look like puff balls. I am energized by Spring and restored by it. I think I’m just a bit frustrated by everything (ie. life) moving so fast. I need more time to focus on what is beautiful around me. Art is one of the ways I do that. Working in my garden is another. There are so many opportunities to live and breathe and be. I am full of gratitude and it’s abundant.

Layers! Layers! This page was fun to put together. I used inspiration for the background from one of Kelly’s pages. I love the torn look and the contrast with the calmness of the woman’s face.

I put down the shiny blue background paper first and then layered the flowers on top of that on the left and across the top. Then I glued down the image of the resting woman and added flowers at her head and neck. I watercolored her lips pink and added pink and yellow to the paper flowers which were originally white. Once everything was dry, I added a piece of plastic – a repurposed sheet protector across the entire image and then stamped the swirls with StazOn. I stamped “serenity” as well with the black permanent ink. Lastly, I journaled.

This page speaks to all the changes that are happening around me and my desire to remain calm and centered through the whole process.

So I said that I’m going to use the ideas in the Journey Within class to push myself and I’ve decided this means I need to really layer my pages. In reviewing my pages from the last class, I can see that I was working with using paper and imagery together. Now I’m going to work on having at least 3 layers on every page and also utilizing transparencies more. I’ve used them twice now and so I think it’s a good start.

The journaling on this page falls into the background – I’ve covered it up too. I’m having fun with journaling and then partially hiding it with different inks and layers. It’s not that I’m saying anything I don’t want people to read – it’s more about making the imagery convey what I’m saying in words. This page is about the joy I’m experiencing in love.

The cool technique I tried with this page that I haven’t done before is taking a page of rub ons and rather than using them precisely, rubbing off each letter or element as it was meant to be used, I scraped across the page of rub ons leaving abstract bits of color and elements randomly on the journal page. I was so thrilled to get this idea because I have several pages of rub ons that I really don’t ever see myself using because the topics are too “scrapbooky.” The page of rub ons that I used was originally meant for a 4th of July scrapbook layout. It worked perfect since the 4th is a celebration and the colors of the rub ons coordinated well with my palette for this page. If you have funky supplies lying around that you have no idea how you’re going to use them, take a different look at them. Find a new way to use them up.

I started on the Journey Within class with Kelly Kilmer last night. This class is going to challenge me because it seems less directed than the last one, but I’m very excited to see what comes out of my work and the ideas presented by the instructor. I worked on the title page and the first journal page. I think they turned out pretty well, but I can tell that I’ve hit a spot where I need to push myself to go farther. The title page feels to me like it needs more work, but I’m pretty satisfied with the first journal page. Let’s see what you think: